London, May 2014 – greentomatocars, the UK’s first ‘hybrid cars only’ minicab service and London’s second largest minicab company, has switched to Magenta Technology’s taxi and private hire dispatching software – helping it achieve year-on-year growth of more than 40 per cent.

Echo, Magenta’s next generation operational and dynamic scheduling solution for the minicab, private hire and limousine businesses, streamlines and automates business processes and has helped greentomatocars’ build on its market success. The automated improvements are enabling the company to deal with an increase in business while delivering an even better, more personal, customer service.

Magenta’s out-of-the-box solution has automatic allocation technology, which ensures continuous improvements in fleet utilisation and further reductions in carbon emissions. “Automatic allocation, bespoke customer services functions, and integrated apps convinced us we were getting a unique, feature-rich solution that would differentiate our services from the other players in the market,” said Mike Tobin, Managing Director at greentomatocars UK. “Echo is the key technology enabler in our business and we are now in a far stronger position than ever before, both in terms of people and technology.”

The technology behind the platform is facilitating greentomatocars’ spread to new market segments, the expansion of their global footprint across the French and US markets, and will power a robust and scalable solution for their fast growing business. Magenta’s successful track record of working with blue chip clients in the ground transportation industry, its ability to respond quickly to new business-driven change requests, and Echo’s strengths as a future-ready and easy-to-use product were the key factors in greentomatocars’ decision to use Magenta as its software vendor and development partner.

Allocating jobs to drivers based on multiple complex criteria and looking at the fleet performance as a whole, Echo rapidly computes and monitors complicated factors like dead mileage, delays in pick up, idle driver time, customer category and preferences, along with a range of other parameters and input from third-party integrations. Optimised job tasking is then sent to drivers on their mobile devices.

Echo also provides a multi-dimensional view for controllers, enabling them to make a better decision faster.

The Echo solution implementation has brought about considerable operational efficiencies to greentomatocars including a streamlined booking process with the possibility of low-to-no mistakes, an increase in the average number of jobs per driver and a reduction in the number of late pickups. The driver app also enables drivers to communicate job status and messages to the controllers quickly and efficiently.

Duncan Fendom, Global IT Director for greentomatocars, added: “We are experiencing an increase in bookings of more than 35 per cent coming through our new web portal and smartphone apps for iPhone and Android. In addition, we are seeing an increase in electronic booking and dispatch, driven by the efficiency of automatic allocation. “Thanks to the Echo platform, we are poised to scale our business volume up by 50 to 100 per cent, which will deliver substantial bottom line results.”

About greentomatocarsgreentomatocars was launched as London’s first green minicab service in March 2006 by Tom Pakenham and Jonny Goldstone. Starting with only 4 cars from a small riverside office in west London, greentomatocars has become the fastest growing company in the history of London’s minicab industry. Their unique offering of a personal, high quality service – married with a promise to use only the greenest vehicles possible “that do the job” – has revolutionised their industry and helped them to become the key player they are now.

About EchoA cutting-edge private hire car and cab operational platform designed and delivered by Magenta Technology, the creators of Addison Lee’s Shamrock platform, Echo is second-to-none in delivering the highest on-demand customer service at the lowest cost.

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